While I have read this book quite a few times, this is the first time that I am teaching it. As I am re-reading it to teach it, I find that I am noticing many, many more things that merit this book as a great read. Here is a bulleted list of things that I have found and what I think of them from the prologue and the first four chapters.
- Gully Foyle's description as an animal. On almost every page (or every other page) at the beginning of the novel, Gully is described as less than human.
- "He fought for survival with the passion of a beast in a trap, but occasionally his primitive mind emerged from teh burning nightmare of surivival into something resembling sanity." (pg 15)
- "He had been content to drift from moment ot moment of existence for thirty hears like some heavily armored creature, sluggish and indifferent--Gully Foyle." (pg 16)
- "He slammed the locker door, dogged it..." (pg 19)
- "He wasted no time on prayer or thanks but continued the business of survival." (pg 19)
- "Gully Foyle, a giant black creature, bearded, crusted with dried blood and filth, emaciated, with sick, patient eyes" (pg 20)
- Gully gathered his belongings, including "an egg slicer upon whose wires he would pluck primitive tunes." (pg 21)
- "You leave me rot like a dog" (pg 22)
- "He is just a big, dumb ox." (pg 38)
- "Foyle, who was waiting for her with ferocious impatience" (pg 40)
- "Beast! Savage! Don't you dare touch me!" (pg 40)
- "Get out, you filthy, hideous...thing. Get out!" (pg 41)
- Foyle avoids Presteign's guards "bulling" through them (pg 50)
- Foyle heaves his grenade at Vorga "With the convulsive gesture of an animal writhing in death throes" (pg 50)
- "An infantile attempt to escape responsibility" (pg 64)
- "In your own primitive way you've got ingenuity and guts. You're Cro-Magnon, Foyle." (pg 65)
- "Cunning, primitive creature" (pg 68)
- In addition to the references to Gully like an animal, his gutter tongue is less-than-human speech. This is further evidence of his being subhuman.
- The name Gulliver Foyle seems to be a reference, in some way, to Lemuel Gulliver of Gulliver's Travels. Gulliver's Travels details the trips of Gulliver. This book is known as a satire on human nature.
- It is important that Foyle is called the "common man." This, along with the prologue's comment on people's disatisfaction of their own time suggest that the common people are ignorant and complacent. Something that, based on the scorn assigned to it in Gully's Merchant Marine records, seems to be frowned upon as much as it is accepted.
- In addition to this, Gully hailed by Joseph of the Scientific People as the "arrival of the fittest" a clear play on the surivival of the fittest in the "doctrine of Holy Darwin" (pg 28)
- Gully's new name Nomad is also extremely important. A nomad is one who moves from place to place, without a home. But in the Bible nomads are shepherds. What does a shepherd do? Tend his sheep. Bibically speaking who are the sheep? The people. Who in the Bible tends the sheep of the earth? Jesus. Wait is Gully Foyle a Christ-like figure?
- "You listen a me, lousy gods. I talkin' a deal, is all. I look again, sweet prayer-men. If it's a ship, I'm yours. You own me. But if it's a gaff, man...if it's no ship...I unseal right now and blow my guts. We both ballast level us. Now reach me the sign, yes or no, is all." (pg 21)
- "It was the sign. He believed. He was saved." (pg 21)
- Seems like he is giving himself to the gods
- He sends up "nine prayers for help" (pg 21)
- He calls Vorga "an angel from space", "Baby angel" (pg 22)
- The business with the Scientific People (all also quite religious)
- The leader's name is Joseph, possibly as in Mary and Joseph, as in the earthly father of Jesus
- Quant Suff - While I cannot find an origin for this abbreviation, it more than likely means quantity sufficient. What makes it interesting to me is that the Scientific People use it like a Christian group would say "Praise Jesus" or "Amen." Perhaps it is just a further mixing of the science and religion that exists among the Scientific People.
- Maori masks - with male/female symbols in name (maybe more gender stuff)
- Maori people are an indigenous tribe of Polynesians living in New Zealand. The orgins of the name have a unique meaning in the context of the novel. The word maori translates to "normal," "natural," or "ordinary" and it distinguished ordinary mortals from deities and spirits.
- Is this evidence to you that Gully is a god? Could this be evidence of his humanity?
- Pg 29 his induction into the Scientific People is very mythic. It reeks of ancient tribal practices and rites of passage. Very cool stuff.
- The Sargasso Asteroid - reference to the Sargasso Sea
- What! Gully gets to chose a woman from among the three like they are dolls from a toy chest!!! Women obviously have no rights in this society.
- Moira - Greek goddess of fate, hmmm....Gully marries the Greek goddess of fate...interesting...Does this question Gully's free will if he is in the hands of fate? Are his actions a choice or is he compelled to act through forces he does not even know? When he kicks Moira out of his space yacht to leave the Scientific People, is he flouting the gods? hmmmm...
- Chapter 3 shifts us to Terra (Earth) and introduces us to Robin Wednesbury. One of the first things that I noticed was the way that Robin Wednesbury treats adults. The novel says that "she treated them like children and they rather enjoyed it." (pg 35) This seems, to me, to be related to what was started in the Prologue. This seems, again, to bring up plebian common nature of the masses.
- Socio-economic issues...ding, ding, ding...jaunting is "limited as much by income as by ability" because in order to jaunt to a place you "first had to pay for the transportation to get you there" (pg 37)
- Another possible mask issue (like Gully's face) is brought up by Robin Wednesbury. She says " You see, no one likes to konw what another person really thinks about him" (pg 38). Meaning that everyone must wear masks around other people. Much like Gully must. Wow! it must be hard to really know someone's intentions and thoughts if everyone is always putting on a facade. Who else might be putting on facades in this story...
- "The mask grinned" (39). Interesting...not Gully but the mask, like they are two separate entities.
- Possibly important note about Robin Wednesbury: her house is "crammed with books, music, paintings, and prints...all evidence of the cultured" (pg 40).
- Another religious reference: "Mr. Holy Mighty Presteign of Presteign" (pg 41). Is he a god of sorts? an economic god?
- "You are aware of my rule, sir. No associate of the Presteign clan may take the name of the Divinity in vain" (pg 50).
- It is interesting that the rich scorn jaunting and other things that make life easier. Do the rich scorn things now when they become popular, mainstream, basically no longer evidence of being rich because they are accessible to the masses?
- Gender and feminism issue: "the rooms of the female members were blind, without windows or doors, open only to the jaunting of intimate members of the family. Thus was morality maintained and chastity defended" (pg 44). What is the status of women in the face of a jaunting world? Are they defenseless victims?
- Olivia Presteign: "glorious albino" with coral eyes, nails, and lips (pg 44). Vampire? She sees heat waves, magnetic fields, radio waves, radar, sonar, and electromagnetic fields. What?!? and she hangs out with artsy people...I need to think about this...
- Mr. Presto - the spokesman for Presteign's retail division. 497 people who have all undergone surgery and psycho-conditioning so that they are all identical. Maybe says something about society again (their reliance on comfortable faces and images?). Maybe also says something about Presteign's power, he can make people want to all look and be the same...is he doing this to all of society in some way?
- Roche Limit (mentioned on pg 49) - Since large bodies (planets) have such a gravitational pull, as other smaller things (other planets, ships, people, etc) get close to the planet (and its gravitational pull) they start to fall apart. The gravity that holds the smaller thing together starts to lose its power in relationship to the larger object. Maybe a metphor here for character relationships. Does Presteign have such a gravitational pull that nothing could come close to him or destroy him without first destroying itself?
- Presteign was supposed to name his new ship the Presteign Princess but instead names it the Presteign Power. Why?
- Y'ang Yeovil - Central Intelligence...multinational...member of Mencius (second most famous Confucian next to Confucius)
- "There are thirteen of that name associated with the clan Presteign" (pg 55) In reference to the number of people named Foyle. Is 13 significant? 12 disciples + Foyle (Jesus)? is this yet another religious reference?
- Misch Metal (pg 56)?
- Sheffield is Presteign's political enemy...so why is he working for him? This doesn't make sense.
- Class reference: "Rich men like Presteign never lose" (pg 58)
- Saul Dagenham - radioactive, former scientist, now owns courier business,
- "FFCC operation: fun, fantasy, confusion, catastrophe" (pg 59) What?
- A line I like: Every child in the world imagines that its phantasy world is unique to itself. Psychiatry knows that the joys and terrors of private phantasies are a common heritage shared by all mankind. Fears, guilts, terrors, and shames could be interchanged, from one man to the next, and none would notice the difference" (pg 61). Does this relate in some way to the masses and the general population?
- Eumenides - a name given to the Erinyes, the Greek gods of vengeance, after they forgive Orestes for killing his mother, this name means "the kindly ones," although they do not seem so kindly in the story
- it may be worth noting that this name was given to the Erinyes after Athena, the Greek goddess of wisdom, convinces them not to be mad after they lose the trial of Orestes for killing his mother. The major idea that lead to Orestes being not guilty was the idea that, in marriage, men are more important than women.
- Megal Mood puts Gully in a new socioeconomic class with lots of money.
- Megal Mood is also another way of putting on a mask or putting on a show
- Gully break out of it when he sees the mask that he knows he should wear "NOMAD" rather than the one made for him
- "A Devil face peered at him from the highlights reflected in Dr. Regan's spectacles" (pg 65). He sees his own face. Is Gully a devil figure?
- spurlos versenkt - German for "sinks without a trace." Might also be related to WWI stuff
- Dagenham believes that Gully will rot like an orchid in prison, but Gully is anything but orchid blossom material.